Durham daily recorder., 1887-05-14
HOWARD'S LETTER.
SOME "REMINISCENCES SUGGESTED
BY AN OLD NEWSPAPER.
Old Times and Modern Contrasts I'm New
York Glimpses ut the Procession In Lies
Highway-The Scene Changes, but HUI
man Nature Remains the Same.
[Copyrighted, 1881

#
Condolences are always suggestive
and generally interesting. I had to-
day what may be called chain of
such. Having occasion to look up a
sketch of Henry Ward Beecher's Sun
day school written in 1868, I found
1t in a copy of the Saturday Eceasng
Courier, published in New York, Jan.
uary 3, 1868, and as l glanced through
the time-stained pages I was COMPOUNDED
absolutely by the multitude of names
with which the public echoes then were
busy, many Of them long since covered
with the dust of oblivion, but number
of Others familiar to the people of to-day
for reasons totally different to those
which made them of consequence then,
and it occurred to me briefly to take that
paper and its contents as text.
The first article treats of Henry Ward
Beecher, dead; Henry G. Bowen, then a
leading,member of Plymouth Church, Sc
Nor partner OF the great firm Of Bowen,
McNamee & Co., who, during a period
of marvellous excitement, apropos Of
anti-slavery feeling, announced to critics
that their goods were for sale, but not
their principles, and now for twenty years
past editor and proprietor of the hide
pendent, and of Plymouth Church ingen-
eral. Then comes story concerning
the depredations of the Alabama, with
comments upon the Banks expedition to
New Orleans. General Banks was then
a middle-aged man of great Republican
and, indeed, general prominence. He
had made the best Speaker our House of
Representatives ever had. He had
achieved an honorable status as governor
of Massachusetts,, and as amajor general
in the early days of the war secured some
reputation. On the editorial page is
Abraham Lincoln's proclamation, liber-
ating all the slaves, with gossip concern
ing Richard B. Connolly, known as Slip
perry Dick, subsequently the financial
manipulation of the great Tweed ring {;
with the Inauguration of Governor Sey-
mour in Albany and reviews of the
magazines of the month, the Continental
Monthly, long since gone; the Knicker-
booker, also among the dead men; the
atlantic and Harpers: but perhaps of
more general interest is the Dramatic Re-
gieio, in which Lester Wallack, Mark
Smith, dead; Fanny Morant, long since
retired; John Gilbert, Miss Henriques,
long since married and retired; Bar
ney Williams, dead; Mrs. Barney Will
liams, Chanfrau, the Couldocks,
Laura Keene, dead; Mrs. John Wood,
Barnum, and the first appearance of Min
ME Warren, subsequently married to
Tom Thumb, then, as ever, worth her
weight in gold; Dan Bryant, dead, and
Manager Grau, the accomplished uncle
of the present indefatigable Maurice,
and their various appearances as enter
tanners and delighters of the general
public.
Death was also busy, and here begin
the condolences:
l saw yesterday upon the street
the popular and successful actress,
Agnes Booth, known in private life
as the wife of Manager John B.
Schoeffel, partner of Henry Abbey.
She was attended by her son, Junius
Brutus Booth, Jr., and, oddly enough
the first item that strikes my eye in the
Courier, under the head of Theatrical
Gossip" is the obituary notice "H. A.
Perry, eminent light comedian, who died
in San Francisco of consumption.
Who was Perry?
Perry was the husband of Agnes Booth
in her early youth.
Further down the column is q no.
tice of I. Wilkes Booth. who subsc.